Indonesia, Thailand cooperate in petrochemical

Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical Public Company and the Indonesian
State-owned company PT Pertamina will establish a petrochemical
marketing and trading joint venture in Indonesia.

Under a
recently-signed agreement, Indonesia holds 51 percent of shares in the
joint venture while its Thai partner owns the remaining 49 percent.

PT Pertamina Director Chrisna Damayanto said the joint venture will
build a petrochemical complex covering a total area of 450 hectares in
South Sumatra province.

According to Chrisna Damayanto,
the joint venture, scheduled to be operational by 2018, will be able to
meet at least 30 percent of the total domestic market share of the
industry.

The project is estimated to have a total capital
of 4-5 billion USD, Bowon Vongsinudo, PTTGC President and CEO said. One
completed and put into operation, it is expected to help Indonesia
reduce its dependence on imported petrochemical products.

Indonesia
has to import an amount of petrochemical products worth 5 billion USD
per year because the country’s industry cannot meet the increasing
demand of its growing economy in recent years.

Apart from
Thailand, Honam Petrochemical Corporation of the Republic of Korea plans
to build a 5 billion USD-petrochemical complex in Cilegon, Banten
province.-VNA